Taissumani: John Sakeouse – Inuit Traveller

KENN HARPER

In 1816 a British whaler took a remarkable young Inuk man to Leith, Scotland. He was John Sakeouse, born at South-east Bay, Greenland – the lower part of Disco Bay – in 1797.

Different accounts describe how he came to be aboard the whaler, Thomas and Anne, in May of 1816. He may have been swept out to sea in his kayak and picked up by the whaler as it left Disco Bay, or he may have stowed away, deliberately wanting to accompany the white men to Scotland. However it happened is unimportant. What is certain is that John Sakeouse reached Leith – Edinburgh’s harbour – in the summer of 1816. He was 19 years of age.

News of the arrival of an Inuk spread quickly through Leith. Indeed, so many people came to the ship to catch a glimpse of him that it impeded the weighing of the whalebone and the captain had to send him ashore to his own lodgings. The crowds then simply started going to Captain Newton’s house in the hope of seeing Sakeouse and his kayak.

The press reported that his kayak was “esteemed a very great curiousity,” and that it weighed only 16 pounds. Handbills were quickly prepared and circulated, announcing that he was to exhibit himself and some curiousities from Greenland for a few days, to raise money so that he could purchase supplies.

Sakeouse often demonstrated his proficiency in his kayak in the harbour at Leith. The Edinburgh press reported at some length on his activities.

One report describes a contest held in the harbour shortly after his arrival, between the young Inuk and six men in a whaleboat. A huge crowd assembled for this demonstration, described as “the greatest concourse of spectators ever known to have assembled at Leith.” People filled the pier, the windows, even the roofs of houses adjoining the harbour, as well as the decks and rigging of many ships. The harbour was crowded with boats filled, the papers noted, with “elegantly dressed females.” The crowd was so large that, in fact, several people fell into the harbour.

The exhibition started just before two o’clock and lasted until half past three. The course for the race itself was from the inner harbour, round the Martello Tower, and back. Sakeouse handily won the race in sixteen minutes, even toying with his opponents by occasionally falling back and giving them periodic advantages, only to overtake them each time.

From a considerable distance he threw one of his darts at the beacon, striking its bulb with accuracy. After the race, he played in the harbour in his kayak for over an hour, throwing darts. He could strike a ship’s biscuit floating in the water and split it, from a distance of thirty yards. He demonstrated his skill in rolling his kayak, a feat that the onlookers found astonishing. The press described it thus: “He was so fastened into his seat, that he could not fall out, as a drawing, like the mouth of a purse, girds him about the loins, so that, in an instant, he was seen to dive under the water, head down and keel uppermost; again in the twinkling of an eye, he raised himself erect out of the water, and scudded along as if nothing had happened.”

In the spring of 1817, John Sakeouse rejoined the Thomas and Anne, ostensibly to return to his homeland. But on reaching Disco Bay, he changed his mind and decided to remain with the ship and return to Scotland at the end of the whaling season. Back in Leith, once again he lived with Captain Newton and his family.

Early in 1818, Sakeouse had a chance encounter on the street with the Scottish landscape painter and portrait artist, Alexander Nasmyth. The artist took Sakeouse to Edinburgh, and discovered that the young man had a talent for drawing. He agreed to provide him instruction in art. In return, Sakeouse sat for a portrait by Nasmyth. That remarkable portrait hangs today in an ornate gold frame in Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery.

In 1818, plans were underway for two British Admiralty expeditions in search of a Northwest Passage. John Ross, in charge of one of the expeditions, would sail north through Davis Strait on his first Arctic expedition. Through Naysmith, the Admiralty arranged that Sakeouse should accompany Ross as interpreter. Sakeouse accepted the offer, with one condition – under no circumstances was he to be left in Greenland.

In August of 1818, after traveling north along the West Greenland coast, John Ross’s ship, Isabella, accompanied by the Alexander under William Edward Parry, crossed Melville Bay and reached the area of Cape York, the southern tip of the unknown district of north-western Greenland. The Inuit there had never before seen a white man.

But when John Ross met them for the first time, he had a distinct advantage over other white explorers in their first encounters with native people. He had an interpreter, John Sakeouse, who could help him communicate with these new people.

(To be continued next week)

Taissumani: A Day in Arctic History recounts a specific event of historic interest. Kenn Harper is a historian, writer and linguist who lives in Iqaluit. Feedback? Send your comments and questions to kennharper@hotmail.com.